I’m not much of a superhero geek, I never read a lot of superhero comics (except Witchblade maybe), but every once in a while I enjoy a bit of easy-to-digest entertainment a la Spider-Man, Batman Begins or Superman Returns. But the X-Men are probably the most interesting among those present day movie superheroes. They work because they are not just a single individual in the fight against evil, but a group of human subspecies which acts as an allegory for minorities – complete with awesome superpowers every kid who’s been mobbed in school dreamed of.

With a devoted fan like Bryan Singer in the director’s chair, two excellent movies have come out of this franchise; X-Men and X-Men 2. As I said I’ve never read any of the comics, but now that I’ve seen 4 different X-Men movies in a row, it was very exciting to spot all the small hints to off-screen characters or future plot lines. Unfortunately the third movie X-Men: The Last Stand has greatly suffered from a wrong director. This has been a clear case of “lets do a sequel to this sure-fire hit, people will watch it no matter who directed it”. But without the perfectionist touch of a geek like Bryan Singer, X-Men: The Last Stand is just a rushed combination of too-short scenes, which doesn’t leave the audience any time to breathe. It has a few nice moments, all of them too short. The remaining moments are spiked with wooden dialogue which makes even George Lucas look like a skilled rhetorician. Very sad to see such potential blown to dust.

Having now also seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I obviously watched the X-Men Trilogy with a different perspective. Naturally it takes all the mystery out of Wolverine’s character, which has always been one of the most exciting things about the X-Men Trilogy. Now that we known everything about Wolverine’s history, we just notice how the continuity in some parts of the story has been trashed. I don’t really get if “the Island” was supposed to be in Alkali Lake, and even if, why’s the adamantium-torture-tank within the dam all of a sudden?

Most confusing though is the portrayal of the character Sabertooth. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine we find out that he’s Wolverine’s brother and also that he has black hair and funky moves. But in X-Men, there’s hardly any indication of them being related (other than Sabertooth grabbing and safe-keeping Wolverine’s dog tags). He doesn’t talk as much as he used to and he also seems to have grown blond. Couldn’t the producers of X-Men Origins: Wolverine ‘ve put a little more effort into making Liev Schreiber look more like Tyler Mane? Long hair at least or something?! Shouldn’t they know that the fans would be upset about stuff like this?

They usually do their best to keep fans happy, of which the inclusion of characters like Angel or Gambit is a good example. In X-Men: The Last Stand Angel does serve as a sort of important character in parts of the plots, but once his purpose is fulfilled, he’s dumped and doesn’t contribute much to the big picture. Likewise, Gambit is one seriously underdeveloped character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He shows up, does a few cool things with his cards and his staff, then he’s gone, then he briefly shows up again. That’s all there is to it and it totally doesn’t make sense for the story. A big disappointment, especially as he’s been prominently featured in the trailer.

Other than that, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a decent movie with many deep-layered themes. It didn’t have that special Bryan Singer touch, but South African newcomer Gavin Hood did a much better job than that idiot Brett Ratner. I’ve actually seen Gavin Hood’s other film Tsotsi, which was okay but story-wise not outstanding. And I think it’s a good thing they went for a director who’s done independent stuff, as opposed to a big name money-machinery Hollywood asshole. That’s always the problem with Hollywood movies. They tend to be more of the same, which makes them all seem boring. I still prefer independent, international and classic movies, but out of all the crap Hollywood has produced in the last couple of years, I think X-Men has definitely been one of the most valuable to those who are willing to take a deeper look at them.